Salem, Oregon-based black doom crushers HELL are swiftly rising from the depths. Disregarding stereotypical religious themes and instead focusing on a grieving, doom-ridden personal Hell, the band creates wildly imaginative atmospheric overtones and droning soundscapes over shattering doom metal. A ghastly ambiance is set thanks to conceptual album art compiled from the works of Gustave Dore.

The music of HELL is forefront to the project rather than imagery. In some of the longer songs such as Trucid or Decedere, intensely emotional clean reverby guitars play classical sounding dual leads to bring an immediate overcoming feeling of mourning. A tasteful mix of cello, viola, or flute is added to bring a truly archaic and prestigious sound. Soon enough all hopes are crushed by the insanely heavy guitars and drums. Bass guitar here is used unconventionally, keeping the overall beat. Soaring tremolo leads take over to seemingly reach out to the heavens, only for the listener to eventually be dragged down into the Hellish pits of sorrow and pain. In the end there is no resolve, only an immense feeling of loss and despair.

Formed in 2005, Altar of Oblivion is the only epic Doom Metal Band to hail from Denmark. The Band thrives on Tragedies of War and captures the Spirit and Atmosphere of this underrated Genre in a compelling and credible Manner. Like Skeletons walking a burning Tightrope, this Danish Act perfectly holds and strikes a Balance between sinister Doom Metal and catchy 80s Heavy Metal.

Since its birth in Vantaa, Finland, 2007, the five piece death metal group Gorephilia has been smashing skulls and slitting arteries with labyrinthine riffs and demonic blast beats, tainting the most sinister elements of golden era US death metal with inherently Finnish suffocating nihilism, with a constant clash of frantic speeding
assaults, bludgeoning mid-tempo headbangers and haunting guitar leads.

Thus far Gorephilia has put out several releases including an EP and two full-length albums. The most recent album "Severed Monolith" was released in March of 2017 by long-time partners Dark Descent Records (CD) and Me Saco Un Ojo Records (LP) and it portrays the band at its sharpest and most volatile to date. It delves deeper

Forged in the northern plains of Canada in the city of Edmonton, Alberta on October of the year 2012, Forsaken Rite had emerged. As far as the mountains of the west and the frost bitten plains of the east they at last came together to birth the warparty in its infancy. Though small in number they used the inspirations they had all brought from their pasts to form a sound unlike any they had done before. It was not long before companions came forth to join their cause, and at long last a lineup was formed. Drawing from the lands of the North and their ancestry, they brought forth tales of battle, glory, adventure, dangerous beasts, hearty drinks and jovial times. After many seasons of change, struggle, and friends come and gone, Forsaken Rite was ready to take the land by storm.

Beyond The Bridge are a German progrock band who were originally formed under the name "fallout" in 1999.

After their first years as a school band in Frankfurt, Germany, and numerous live gigs in the local rock scene, the band seemed to face an early demise when all band members started to settle throughout Germany to engage in their university studies and professional careers.

It wasn't until 2005 that guitarist Peter Degenfeld-Schonburg decided to revive the band with a project he had entitled The Old Man and the Spirit. For the next five years to come, he would spend innumerable hours together with keyboarder Christopher Tarnow to complete the songs and the story of this slowly evolving concept album. Christopher, who had also been part of the original line-up, got to know brilliant producer Simon Oberender during his Tonmeister course in Detmold, Germany. Simon was also the one to introduce drummer Fabian Maier and lead vocalist Herbie Langhans to the band. Together with bass player Dominik Stotzem, founder of the old school band and best friend to Peter and Christopher ever since, the line-up of Beyond The Bridge was almost completed. Lead vocalist Dilenya Mar came to the band after Peter had been to a concert of hers singing classic Jazz tunes in Munich, Germany.

Thränenkind came to be in 2007 near Munich in the south of Germany. The band name could be translated as "child of tears" and was chosen as contrast to the "grim" and "cliché" names in black metal. The band members are fascinated by the name's ambiguity, which can be discovered within their multilayered sound.

Having released a demo (2008) and a split-CD with Heretoir, The Elk is the first full-length for the quintet. The earlier recordings had more (post) black metal and shoegaze influences, while their Lifeforce Records debut album contains touches of crust and hardcore punk. But The Elk is offering also five formidable instrumental post rock songs with a melancholic yet beautiful atmosphere, too. Some of the songs are slow and profound. Others are fast and unfold the ruthless power of (post) black metal. The Elk is a concept album telling the story of two siblings, who are on a roadtrip to their father's funeral. They are faced with meeting old friends and memories, tragedy, hope, death and a mysterious "stranger".

MATER MONSTIFERA is an atmospheric black metal band from South Bohemia, Czech Republic, adept at creating music with powerful melodies and intense atmosphere. The band has been on the stage since 2000, the former line-up changed yet consolidated, and since we've recently released our new CD, we go on doing our craft right and there's much for our fans to look forward to.

• MATER MONSTIFERA was born in the end of the summer 2000. The initial line-up were Yvor - guitar, backing vocals & programming, Destructor - vocals, and Jitka - keyboards. Not long after that, Astral Vampire (guitar) joined the band and by the end of the year, MATER MONSTIFERA had recorded and released their first demo CD, named "Svíce života"(The Candle of Life).

PAGANLAND was founded in 1997 by Ruen and Bilozor in Lviv - one of the most beautiful Ukrainian cities, whose developed traditions incorporated the European cultural spirit of the last millennium, and every stone breathes with centuries-old history of decline and revival, wars and temporary rest.

The natural mysticism hidden in the Carpathians' greatness, the dense woods and pure mountain sources could not but affect musicians with Pagan outlook, therefore their debut demo "Gods of Golden Circle" (1999) and the demo "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (2008) one way or another had been nearly related to Pagan Metal.

Things got started back in 2006 when four guys from Zagreb went to a rehearsal place to rock, down tuned their guitars, turned up the volume on their amps, unaware that they would soon become a band known as Cojones. By the end of 2007 Sonic Doom Records made its first release, a split album titled „Cojones & Umor split LP". After the Mammoth March tour in 2008 Cojones started recording their first LP titled Sunrise which was released DIY again through Sonic Doom Records in 2009. These guys played numerous gigs throughout Europe where they shared the stage with many great bands and played at Stoned from the Underground festival 2012 in Erfurt.

Widow was formed in the winter of 2000 when guitarist Chris got together with John E. and Joshua to express their vision of metal. Peter also possessed the same dark ideas and their union was inevitable. The lineup was complete to execute their brand of heavy metal.

The group is influenced by many of their own experiences, plus groups such as King Diamond, Crimson Glory, Warlord, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Yngwie Malmsteen. Widow explores the neo-classical side of heavy metal combined with their death metal roots. The morbid personality of each member comes together to form the unique sound of the band.

After Magnum split, a spin off group featuring Catley and Clarkin was formed called Hard Rain, and they released the albums Hard Rain and When The Good Times Come. It was around this time that Catley launched a solo career using various songwriters, including Gary Hughes of the band Ten. However, Hard Rain found gigs and bookings hard to come by, and there were discussions about renaming the band as Magnum. Also, at this time, Catley was becoming increasingly focused on his solo career, and he quit Hard Rain, marking the end of a working relationship with Clarkin that dated back to 1972. After a quiet period Clarkin announced the end of Hard Rain.

Poison Blood is a collaboration between Jenks Miller (Horseback) and Neill Jameson (Krieg). Born out of Miller's desire to write music that was an outlet for a more straightforward kind of aggression, the two musicians came together as fans of each other's work and a mutual appreciation for Beherit's classic Drawing Down the Moon LP. Although they have yet to meet in person, the project was crystallized with the contribution of Jameson's vocals. The result is a dark and low-fi exercise in mystic, minimalistic black metal.